In an egregious display of disregard for national security from the second Trump administration, U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz unknowingly added the phone number for the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to a group text in which leaders discussed plans for an airstrike in the Middle East.
In an article published on the outlet’s website on Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, the top editor at the news and culture outlet The Atlantic, revealed details of what happened in the group chat on the secure, open-source messaging app Signal. He called his inclusion in the conversation a display of “shocking recklessness” on the part of Donald Trump’s appointee, who advises the president on all matters around national security and sits on the Homeland Security Council. Goldberg explained that via the Signal group, he was privy to top-secret intelligence regarding U.S. strikes on the Houthis in Yemen that could have led to a dire situation for U.S. military personnel.
“On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz,” he wrote. “I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists — and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically.”
Goldberg proceeded with caution, he wrote, unsure if the administration was attempting to bamboozle him in some way. But two days later, he received a second invite from Waltz to a second chat; this new group was called “Houthi PC small group.” That’s where some messages came in that were definitely not meant for the eyes of the editor of a national magazine.
“Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours,” the message read, according to Goldberg. “My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputy/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
For several days, Goldberg was privy to the communication of top brass overseeing national security in the U.S. — a group of leaders known as the Principals Committee. Disagreements within the administration were clear in the chat — Vice President J.D. Vance was opposed to strikes in Yemen; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was in favor of them, the editor wrote. Days later, the stakes and scale of the information he’d be able to view in the group became clear.
“It was the next morning, Saturday, March 15, when this story became truly bizarre, ” he wrote. “At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled ‘Pete Hegseth’ posted in Signal a ‘TEAM UPDATE.’ I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility.’”
Goldberg noted that Hegseth’s Signal post gave up operational details of “forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying and attack sequencing.” On March 15, strikes in Yemen targeting its Houthi rebels began pounding sites across the country and are still ongoing. The journalist wrote that because of the national security adviser’s snafu, he was made aware of the strikes two hours ahead of them occurring.
Goldberg contacted the Trump administration about the matter, and it was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump National Security Council, that the messages were legitimate and from that nation’s leaders.
“This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” he told The Atlantic.
